Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 7).djvu/60

38 of Manila to the combined naval and army forces under Dewey and Merritt, 13 Aug., 1898, Lieut. Brumby raised the American flag over the city. He accompanied Admiral Dewey on his return to the United States in the "Olvmpia." in Sept., 1899.

BRYAN, Jonathan, patriot, b. in South Caro- lina, 12 Sept., 1708; d. in Georgia, 13 March, 1788. He removed to Georgia in 1752 and was active in the affairs of the colony. In 1754 lie was made a member of the first royal council under Gov. Rey- nolds and an associate judge of the fii'st general court. In 1769 he presided over a meeting of the " Liberty boys," who passed non-importation reso- lutions similar to those of Virginia, for which ac- tion the king ordered his suspension from his of- fices, thus making him the first martyr for political liberty in Georgia. lie represented the district of Savannah in the provincial congress, 4 July, 1775, and was a member of the council of safety. In 1776 he was one of the committee that was ap- pointed by the council to wait on Gen. Charles Lee, then commanding that department, in behalf of the colony, and by his influence persuaded Lee to prepare an e.pedition against St. Augustine in defence of the Georgia frontier. The expedition failed through Lee's mismanagement. In 1779 he was arrested by the British, and with his son James imprisoned in one of the prison ships in New York bay. In 1780 he was released, but disqualified by act of the Tory assembly of Georgia. Although then seventy-two years old, he entered the Conti- nental army and fought under Wayne. He was a brave loader, a true patriot. The county of Bryan, Georgia, was named in his honor.—His grandson, Joseph, b. in South Carolina, 18 Aug.. 1773: d. 5 Sept., 1812 ; was educated at the University of Cam- bridge England, and elected in 1803 a member of congress from Georgia. He served three sessions, and resigned in 180ti to retire to private life.

BRYAN, Thomas Barbour. lawyer, b. in Alexandria, Va., 32 Dec, 1828. He was graduated at the Harvard law-school in 1848, and practised in Cincinnati for four years, when he removed to Chicago. He was a member of the Union defence committee, president of the Chicago sanitary fair, and president of the Soldiei-s' home since 1865. He was an active promoter of the World's Colum- bian exposition of 1893, and has been president of the Union league club of Chicago. — His son, Charles Page, b. in Chicago, 12 June, 1856, was graduated at the University of Virginia and the Columbia law-school, and was in 1878 admitted to the bar. He was for four terms a member of the Illinois legislature and on the staff of Gov. Rich- ard Oglesby (q. v.), with the rank of colonel. In December, 1897, he was appointed by President McKinley American minister to China, but before proceeding to Pekin he was transferred to Brazil.

BRYAN, William Jennings, presidential can- didate, b. in Salem, Marion co., HI., 19 March, 1860. His father, Silas L. Bryan, of Virginian an- cestry, was a member of the state senate for eight years, and afterward a judge of the circuit court. William J. Bryan was educated at the public schools of his native town, and in Whipple acad- emy, Jacksonville, III., where he was prepared for Illinois college. In his senior year in the latter institution he gained second prize in an intercol- legiate oratorical contest, and on his graduation, in 1881, he was class orator at commencement. After studying law at Union law college, Chicago, 111., and in the office of Lyman Trumbull, he began to practise his profession in Jacksonville. A year later he married Mary E. Baird, of Perry, 111., whom ho had met during his college course, when she was a student in the seminary at Jacksonville. In 1887 he removed to Lincoln, Neb., where, after the birth of the first of her three children, his wife was admitted to the bar and gave him efficient aid in the practice of his profession. In May, 1888, Mr. Bryan was elected a member of the Omaha convention that was to select delegates to the na- tional Democratic con- venlion at St. Louis, and he became widely known as an orator through a speech be- fore the convention ad- .vocating a tariff for "revenue only. Large- ly owing to this speech, he was offered in the following year the Democratic nomina- tion for lieutenant- governor of the state. Although he declined the office he took an active part in the can- vass, and a year later, in 1890, he was nominated by the Democrats for congress through the efforts of the younger element of the party in his district, 'i'he district, although Democratic by 7,000 majority in 1886, had been carried by the Republicans by 3,000 in 1888. The party man- agers gave little aid to Mr. Bryan in his canvass, regarding it as hopeless, and he was ridiculed by his opponents as young and without experience, yet he entered into the contest with vigor, and de- feated his opponent, Mr. Connell, the holder of the seat, by a majority of more than 6,000. lie was a member of the ways and means committee both in this congress and in the following one, to which he was chosen in 1892 by a plurality of only 140. In congress he actively supported the Democratic view of the tariff, and later became a conspicuous advocate of the free coinage of silver, aiding Rich- ard P. Bland in his efforts to this end, and gaining notice by readiness as a speaker and skill in parlia- mentary tactics. He declined a third nomina- tion to congress, and became, in 1894, editor of the Omaha '• World-Herald " for the purpose of advo- cating his views on the free coinage of silver. After an unsuccessful candidacy for the U. S. sen- ate he left the editorship and resumed his law yiractiee, at the same time continuing his interest in politics. He is credited with a principal part in bringing about at this time the union of the People's party with the Democrats in Nebraska. In 1896 he was a member of the national Demo- cratic convention at Chicago, and on 10 July was put in nomination as a presidential candidate by H. T. Lewis, of Georgia. His nomination by the convention had not been thought of as possible un- til, in reply to a speech by Senator David B. Hill, of New York, he had advocated free coinage of sil- ver in an address closing with the words, afterward widely quoted : "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." On the first ballot Mr. Brvan received 119 votes, on the second 190. on the third 291. on the fourth 280, and on the fifth .500, thus receiving the nomina- tion. In the convention of the Peo]de's party, held in St. Louis later in the month, he was also made the head of their ticket. He telegraphed to Senator Jones to withdraw his name unless Ar- thur Sewell, the Democratic candidate for vice- president, should be nominated by the Populists